I had a conversation this weekend with a friend regarding websites, and why they are important to small businesses. The question asked was pretty much focusing on what I thought the benefits of going to the trouble of having a website were. Well, my view on this is quite strong, so I thought that I would share it with everyone…
SME’s have a major disadvantage against the multi nationals, and especially new start-ups! The disadvantage is quite simply that SME’s tend not to have the ability to pull off multi-million pound ad campaigns to push their product or brand into the homes of their target audience, and quite often they can’t even afford around the thousand pound mark, meaning that they fall behind and loose out to the multi-nationals… even though they may be hugely competitive and be able to offer a much better service!
Being a businessman myself I understand just how self-employed and/or smaller company directors look at things, especially when we are talking about new startups. There appears to be a mentality that marketing means big money, and placing advertisements here there and everywhere, splashing out a fortune in order to get the return. Well, to be fair this is a complete load of rubbish.
Don’t get me wrong, I made the exact same mistakes when I first took the leap and set up my first business, and believe me… I have never made the mistake since.
Heres the simple truth… most advertising does not work, and of the marketing methods that do work and are very effective a large proportion of them are completely free!!!!!! Yep, you heard me right! FREE!!!
Stay with me here, I’m getting to the useful stuff now…
Forget paying £100 to have you ad in the local paper… it will run once and statistically only hit around 2% of your target audience… of which very few will take the time to look at your add, with the rest throwing it away. This is common knowledge, yet companies still place ad after ad, spending up to £1k a year just on local ads that simply don’t produce the return to make them successful!
On a local level the most effective method of marketing is to stop trying to attract new customers! Yep, thats right, instead focus on your existing customers. Give them a service that will make them loyal to you. This will do two things. First, it will keep them spending their money with you and possibly increase their spend, and secondly, it will get them making referrals… they will tell other people just how amazing you are… then those people become customers and make referrals, and the process goes on. It’s possible to grow a business on customer referrals alone! Word of mouth, its a powerful tool!
Now, looking at the aspect of getting your business out of your locality and in the eyes of the public nation (and possibly world) wide… the same applies… don’t waste your hard earned cash on adverts in national media, on TV or on pay-per-click internet advertising.
The best way to reach a mass audience is with a website, and you can get that website performing exceptionally well without spending a penny on paid for advertising!
A website is the “shop window” of your business on the world wide web, and is one of the most effective methods of marketing your product or service in todays modern age. But the reason why most people stay clear is they think it will cost a fortune! Wrong! If you think about the £1k+ that you have now saved by ditching all that advertising that doesn’t work and offset that against an average cost of just £500 for a 5 page brochure website you have already saved money. And it is a saving, because having a website is guaranteed to generate interest in your business. And when I say interest I don’t just mean the odd enquiry here and there… I’m talking about exposing yourself to over 100,000 potential new clients a year… PLUS!
You don’t need an expensive flashy website that is all singing and dancing to achieve these results either, instead a simple but effective site with the right copy (information) included, and perhaps some pictures/artwork to complement is proven to do just as good a job.
The part that determines the success of the site is the effectiveness of your online marketing.. which again you don’t need to spend a penny on! Spending the time to get your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) right is key! Now SEO in itself is a big subject and I’ve already touched on that before at times so thats not for here. But understanding that a website is the tool that will help you keep up with the multi-nationals for very little cost is the most important discovery you will make!
As part of our Web Design Service we sort the SEO for you and work with you every step of the way to ensure that your online venture is as successful as possible. And our Virtual Webmaster Service removes all the stress and lack of time from your day, and replaces it with the ability for you to work ON your business rather than IN it!
If you would like further information then please do feel free to get in touch, or visit our main site at http://www.whiterosedesignsolutions.net